Baucus criticizes Boxer climate bill

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus criticized the Senate climate change bill Tuesday, saying he had “overall concerns” about a sweeping proposal that would mandate a 20 percent cut in emissions by 2020.

“We cannot afford the unmitigated impacts of climate change but we also cannot afford the unmitigated effects of legislation,” Baucus said during the first in a series of climate change hearings before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

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Baucus' positioning on climate change is important for two reasons. First, he's a moderate swing vote who represents a coal producing state that has been skeptical about serious short-term caps on emissions. Second, as Finance Committee chairman, he's got a major stake in the financing of a cap and trade proposal, so his committee is expected to rewrite parts of the EPW bill.

Baucus implied that the 20 percent cut in emissions by 2020 was too steep him and other moderate Democrats to support.

“We cannot afford a first step that takes us further away from a conceivable consensus on climate change,” he said.

Republicans see the legislation crafted by EPW Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) as a nonstarter.

“This bill necessarily will raise the price of gasoline, electricity, food and just about everything else,” said Sen. Jim Inhofe, the ranking member of the committee.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), a lead sponsor of the legislation, contended that it would only cover 2 percent of businesses, exempting all small businesses that put out less than 25,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.

“We have to be able to find it in our capacity to reduce pollution from 2 percent of America’s businesses that represent 75 percent of America’s pollution,” Kerry said.

Five top Obama administration officials encouraged the Senate to pass climate legislation on Tuesday morning.

“Only new legislation can bring about the comprehensive and integrated changes that are needed to restore America’s economic health and keep the nation secure over the long term,” said Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar stressed that the bill would spur the development of renewable fuels – even as Republican and moderate Democrats advocate for the legislation to included funding to expand domestic oil exploration and nuclear power.

“We can remain the world’s leading importer of oil, or we can become the world’s leading exporter of clean energy technology,” he said.

As the Senate debates legislation, the EPA is also moving forward with regulations to curb greenhouse gases across a wide swath of industries.

The agency is expected to release a final version of a rule finding that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are a danger to human health and welfare. The ruling will mandate that the agency begin regulating emissions under the Clean Air Act.

But the EPA would rather do this with legislation instead of executive rule-making.

“Even as the President and the members of his Cabinet move forward under existing authority, we continue urging Congress to pass a new clean energy law,” said Jackson.